Saint Bonnet

Also known as Saint Bonitus

Classification: Roman Catholic saint

The Black Madonna of Puy-en-Velay

Saint Bonnet served as chancellor to King Sigebert III of Austrasia, the northeastern portion of the kingdom of the Merovingian Franks. Sigebert, now also venerated as a saint, was the eldest son of King Dagobert I. In 667, Bonnet was appointed Governor of Marseilles and, in 689, he was made Bishop of Clermont, in what is now modern France. He spent his last years living as a hermit in the Benedictine abbey at Clermont and died in Lyons while returning from a pilgrimage to Rome.

Although there was a historical Bonnet, the saint is also syncretized to the popular Gaulish deity Belenus. Locations in France re-named in honor of Saint Bonnet often mask ancient veneration to Belenus. Saint Bonnet is among those saints whose image often appears in the company of Black Madonnas.